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LET me first note that this column was submitted a
few hours before President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo delivered her
2008 State of the Nation Address. Now, in answer to the question
posed by this column’s title: Nothing much really. That is, if you
believe what Johnny Gatbonton said in his Manila Times article
yesterday, titled, “President Arroyo and her critics: ‘Sticks
and Stones.”
There is nothing much we can do
but wait for 2010. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s critics
(which, surveys say, includes pretty much everyone nowadays) can
rant against her all they want; they (or we) can say the most
insulting things about her, but in the end, GMA can tell us,
“Hanggang kantyaw na lang kayo.”
As Gatbonton pointed out, the
political system, heavily one-sided, in favor of the executive, has
practically allowed her to do whatever she pleases by manipulating
the other branches of government as well as the other societal
institutions that are supposed to check her, virtually guaranteeing
a free reign until she steps down (which is still a big IF in my
book). The only thing we can do is to change certain things in the
system to prevent a future GMA.
We can’t heckle the president
into stepping down, that I believe. If she can withstand certain
efforts by influential (or used-to-be influential) military leaders
against her—and she has indeed shown a flair for that—then she
can certainly withstand the mere words of critics. Sisiw.
Still, some heckles are more
effective than others. I don’t think the president is entirely
oblivious, indifferent or, more aptly, manhid, to what is being said
about her, or to how she is being perceived by the public. Of
course, she is somehow or somewhat affected. Regardless of what they
say about her iron will (or about her surname being just two letters
more than the Filipino word for thick or shameless: makapal), I
believe she still doesn’t want to go down in history as the worst
Filipino president ever. And right now, her presidency does appear
to be headed for colossal historical disgrace.
GMA is in serious contention for
the worst ever. As Newsbreak’s Jesus Llanto said in his article
(23 July 2008, “GMA makes history: The most unpopular among the
post-FM presidents”), “As far as net satisfaction ratings of
post-Marcos presidents are concerned, Arroyo holds four records: she
is the first post-Marcos president to receive a negative rating; she
is the only president since 1986 who received a negative
satisfaction rating for the longest time; she is the president who
received the lowest rating at start of her administration; and she
is the one who received the lowest rating among the four presidents
since the fall of Marcos regime.”
How does any president sink so
low, especially one like GMA who once was so popular? Llanto noted
the difference in GMA’s popularity ratings before she became
president as well. “She topped the 1995 senatorial election after
receiving 15.7 million votes—the highest during that time—and
was ahead of more than 3 million votes to the second placer, Raul
Roco. Her net satisfaction ratings during her term as senator did
not fall below +40 across all regions.
“When she ran for vice
president, she garnered almost 13 million votes and surpassed the 11
million votes received by Estrada. As vice president, her
satisfaction rating never went below +47 except during the height of
the impeachment trial of her predecessor in December 2000.”
What a difference the presidency
makes indeed. Where could GMA have gone wrong to inspire such crises
of credibility and public trust? No previous president appears to
have squandered the public’s goodwill more than GMA and no one has
gained such a reputation for deviousness.
With two years to go in her term,
can she still be spared the ignominy of being the worst ever? Would
there be such a reprieve? Does she actually care enough to salvage
her reputation and historical standing?
I believe so. I truly believe she
can manage to reverse plummeting ratings and regain the public
trust. And she can do this not by shifting attention away from her
political and policy setbacks, as her administration has time and
again tried to do, but by confronting them head-on.
It is no big secret why GMA’s
words, her SONAs if you will, seem so incredible to the Filipino
people: her administration has been a cumulative endeavor of saying
one thing while doing another. The modus operandi of her
administration has always been to shift attention away from her
mistakes and the scandals plaguing her administration and go into
attack mode. And that’s why people don’t expect anything new in
her SONA today, or why they don’t believe her, or don’t care.
Openness and candor in addressing
the issues would go a long way in redeeming trust, credibility and
respectability for the president. As Richard Nixon once said, “The
best answer to a smear is to tell the truth.”
It’s not too late for that, is
it?
ernestboyherrera@yahoo.com
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